Cuba

U.S.-Cuban relations have been virtually nonexistent since 1961, when the United States assumed a two-pronged policy of economic embargo and diplomatic isolation. Now that Fidel has transferred power to his younger brother, Raul, some experts think the United States should reconsider its policy toward Cuba. Philip Peters of the Lexington Institute and Dennis Hays, the State Department's former Coordinator for Cuban Affairs, debate how the United States should engage with a post-Castro Cuba.

Follow President Barack Obama and President Raul Castro's near simultaneous announcements to recast U.S.-Cuba relations, Julia Sweig reflects in her column on potential changes that may occur in the next five to ten years.

Elliott Abrams argues in The Weekly Standard that President Obama’s actions on Cuba today constitute the triumph of ideology over American national interest. Moreover, he writes, reversing a policy of a half-century’s standing in exchange for nothing—no human rights changes in Cuba at all—cannot be reassuring to countries that depend on American policy reliability.

Following the release of new polling data, indicating a majority of Americans are for improving relations with Cuba, Julia Sweig reflects in her column on the role of pragmatism in U.S. politics and on U.S.-Cuba relations.

In the wake of the preliminary accord reached with Iran, Julia Sweig proposes that the Obama administration pursue a diplomatic resolution to another vexing element of U.S. foreign affairs: the relationship with Cuba.

Captain Melissa Bert, USCG, argues that as Cuba moves ahead with plans for a mobile offshore drilling unit, the United States must incorporate Cuba in emergency response coordination and joint operations, work through sanctions hurdles, and properly fund a response to a potential disaster.

CFR Experts Guide

The Council on Foreign Relations' David Rockefeller Studies Program—CFR's "think tank"—is home to more than seventy full-time, adjunct, and visiting scholars and practitioners (called "fellows"). Their expertise covers the world's major regions as well as the critical issues shaping today's global agenda. Download the printable CFR Experts Guide.

New Council Special Reports

Campbell evaluates the implications of the Boko Haram insurgency and recommends that the United States support Nigerian efforts to address the drivers of Boko Haram, such as poverty and corruption, and to foster stronger ties with Nigerian civil society.

Koblentz argues that the United States should work with other nuclear-armed states to manage threats to nuclear stability in the near term and establish processes for multilateral arms control efforts over the longer term.

The authors argue that it is essential to begin working now to expand and establish rules and norms governing armed drones, thereby creating standards of behavior that other countries will be more likely to follow.

2014 Annual Report

Learn more about CFR’s mission and its work over the past year in the 2014 Annual Report. The Annual Report spotlights new initiatives, high-profile events, and authoritative scholarship from CFR experts, and includes a message from CFR President Richard N. Haass.Read and download »